the also elected the republican majority in the house. they gave us a mandate not to raise taxes on families and small businesses, but a mandate to work together to solve the massive debt that threatens our country's future. unfortunately the president and senate democrats have vowed to reject indeed all of our proposals while failing to offer responsible solutions of their own. what the president has offered so far will not do anything to solve our spending problem and begin to adjust our nation's crippling debt. instead he wants more spending and tax hikes that will hurt our economy. he refuses to challenge the members of his party to deal honestly with entitlement reform and the big issues that are facing our nation. that is why we find ourselves here today. i have challenge members of our party to make the tough choices. we are willing to. washington has a serious spending problem. $16 trillion of our debt surpassed the size of our entire economy. it is a milestone, one of many we will have to bear it we do not come to grips with it.